


the death of a prince

by breadofthewild



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Brief Hubert von Vestra, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Female My Unit | Byleth, Feral Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route Spoilers, Gen, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22092715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadofthewild/pseuds/breadofthewild
Summary: Hilda sees the prince fall.
Kudos: 18





	the death of a prince

**Author's Note:**

> yes this is basically just dima's death in gd lol

She's sitting atop her wyvern, Freikugel gripped in one hand. Hilda watches over Gronder Field as everyone fights below her, and she sighs at the sight of war. Her hands are bloodied, her skin is sweaty, and her hair has fallen out of its updo she normally sported. She couldn't help but feel a deep sense of melancholy through it all—that, even though she wished she could be at home doing nothing more than anything, she knew her place and what she had to do. Hilda sighs again.

Claude is the one that encounters the prince of Faerghus first. He's stripped down to nothing more than a deranged beast, a feral boar to everyone around him. The only things that haunt his mind are the dead and his hatred of Edelgard. Claude can see the prince charge into the fray without a second thought for his own safety, taking no caution at all. His bloodlust sets his eyes on fire, and from above, Claude can see that Dimitri bears an anger he's never seen in the prince before.

"Dimitri," Claude whispers to himself, "what happened to you?"

The professor is the one that finds Edelgard. She's standing alone, all her guards having been cut down by Byleth alone. Hubert has retreated, and nobody is left standing in the way between Edelgard and her enemies. For a moment, Byleth falters when she sees her. The Sword of the Creator glowing in her hands lowers ever so slightly, but Edelgard finally meets Byleth's eyes in time for her to draw her blade correctly again.

"So it's you," Edelgard says, her eyes narrowed. She bears no hatred in her eyes, not like Dimitri, who only laid his eyes upon the professor for a few seconds only to scoff at her. Edelgard's shield obscures part of her face, but she sets it to the side just a little to make herself seen. Perhaps she wanted to be viewed as vulnerable, or see the professor better for herself—there's no telling what went on in the emperor's head when she saw the professor before her, but something in her changed.

Byleth's eyes are narrowed as well. She nods once, never letting her sword falter again, both hands gripping its hilt tightly. Edelgard wields a massive axe that glows the same color as Byleth's blade, one that she holds at her side. Byleth decides to speak.

"Why are you doing this?" she shouts, the only time she's ever raised her voice at a student. But it didn't matter anymore, not now, not on this vast field where they were nothing more than enemies. Byleth wasn't a professor, and Edelgard not her student—they both knew those were bygone days that were useless to dwindle on.

Edelgard frowns, averting her gaze from the professor's for a split second. Quickly, though, she regains herself. "I truly wish you were one that could be swayed by my words. Alas, I know that is something far from the truth..." Edelgard trails off, her words hanging in the air. "I wish you could've walked by my side. But no matter, it is far too late now. Your time ends here, Professor. Prepare yourself!"

Byleth is the first to charge, her speed outmatching Edelgard's by a long shot. Their weapons clash, the Sword of the Creator against Edelgard's Aymr, and she switches to the defensive and offensive effectively by using her armor and shield. Byleth isn't equipped with nearly as much armor as the emperor, but she was fast. She hacked at Edelgard from all angles until she finally found an opening, and when Edelgard least expected it, Byleth swung her blade towards her weak spot.

Edelgard stumbled. The clanks of her armor echo through the field, and Byleth brings the tip of her sword to Edelgard's neck.

"I see now. But I cannot lose here. Hubert, come!" In a flash, the emperor is whisked away in a strange purple light, a result of Dark Magic that Byleth recognizes is by the work of Hubert. Edelgard disappears within seconds, and Byleth is left standing there with her blade pointing at the air.

"Teach! You're safe," a voice calls from above Byleth. She looks to the skies and finds Claude riding his wyvern, Failnaught in hand. He asks if she's seen Edelgard, and she will explain that she just fought her, but escaped before she could do anything more.

"Ah, retreating, I see. I guess that leaves us the choice to also pull back. I'll gather our troops. You keep an eye out for Dimitri's army, my friend," Claude instructs, flying off to gather everyone. Byleth nods even though he's already left, and she's left alone to look at the mess of Gronder that she and the three leaders have made.

Hilda hears from Claude himself that it's safe to fall back since Edelgard's retreated. She finds herself sighing in relief, wiping her forehead that's been beading with sweat. She pats her wyvern's head once, signaling to follow Claude, but her eye catches something that nobody else seems to notice.

Dimitri is running. But he isn't sprinting at any normal speed—he's falling behind. Nobody around him bears the emblem of the Kingdom, and he is left alone in a crazed chase for Edelgard. He soon falls to his knees, hitting the ground in frustration with his fists, crawling onwards to where the rest of the Imperial army was stationed. Hilda stays above him for a few moments, her eyebrows quirked in curiosity and concern alike. She can hear the prince's manic words even from the skies as he mutters for Edelgard's head.

Imperial troops slowly circle around Dimitri. Hilda can't seem to get herself to move, her eyes locked on the prince as he lies on the ground vulnerable. He already looks dead, his cloak masking his body, but just a few murmurs from him causes the soldiers to act.

"Kill him at once," one soldier instructs, and the rest of them nod in obedience. Within seconds, Hilda watches in horror as the prince of Faerghus is pierced to death, multiple spears stabbing into his back over and over until the grass around him is drained red. She can't find it in herself to intervene as fear courses through her veins, and quietly, she flies off to find Claude and the rest of her classmates.

She will never forget the sight of it. Dimitri, the feral look in his eyes, the deranged tone he bore as he hunted for Edelgard up to his last moments. And the spears—all of them, so many of them—piercing his skin without any mercy as he cried out in pain and nobody stopped to spare him.

Hilda shudders. Tears brim her eyes, the sight too horrific to behold and relive in her memory. She eventually finds Claude and the professor, and she tells them through chokes of sobs what she witnessed.

"I saw him."

"Who? Dimitri?" Claude asks, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes," Hilda says solemnly, her arms wrapped around her torso. She's shivering. "I saw him running off after Edelgard even after she retreated and...and he collapsed. A bunch of Imperial soldiers found him and all pierced him with their spears..." Only a few tears escape from Hilda's eyes, as she shakes her head at the image of Dimitri's death. Claude frowns and wraps an arm around Hilda's delicate frame, rubbing her shoulders in comfort. "I see," he says, and Byleth can only watch as Hilda remembers the horror of the prince falling and Claude comforting her as best as he can.

"He didn't have to go out like that, you know?" Hilda says after a while, and Claude nods in agreement. Nothing more is said between the three because nothing needed to be. Claude's expression is saddened, his eyebrows knitted. As a leader, he realizes Dimitri's death brings about one less concern for the Alliance. But as a person, Claude mourns over the death of a former friend. 


End file.
